Coach Lionel Scaloni announced that Lionel Messi will start on the bench in Argentina’s last group match against Jordan on Saturday, as the defending champions are already guaranteed first place.
“Leo will come on later and I’ve already confirmed the team, but we’re going to announce it tomorrow,” AFP quoted Scaloni telling reporters on Friday.
Argentina’s victories over Austria (2-0) and Algeria (3-0) have already guaranteed them the top spot in Group J. Argentina’s captain Messi, who turned 39 on Wednesday, is now the top scorer in World Cup history after scoring all of Argentina’s goals thus far at the competition in North America.
Scaloni is anticipated to make the changes as Argentina advance to the round of 32 and debutants Jordan already eliminated.
Argentina will play the second-place team from Group H, which includes Saudi Arabia, Spain, Uruguay, and Cape Verde.
French left back Nicolas Tagliafico expressed his opinion that Messi was at his best.
“He’s at the very exact same level as in 2022, or even better, I would say,” said the 33-year-old.
In addition to a cake, the Argentina players donned specially designed T-shirts in Messi’s honor on his birthday.
“I think that this was something quite beautiful. At the end of the day these are just small details. You know (how it is) when you have to live together for such a long time, when you see everybody’s faces every single day. We had a ball, we just had a blast,” said Tagliafico.
